WIOA reauthorization included in government funding bill

A proposed plan to fund the government through mid-March also includes sweeping legislation that would reauthorize the nation’s main workforce development law, which includes funding for a community college job training grant.

The continuing resolution, unveiled this week, must be passed by Dec. 20 to avert a government shutdown. House Republicans have taken issue with the spending plan, and GOP leaders are reportedly planning to scrap the current proposal.

It’s unclear whether the Stronger Workforce for America Act will survive the pushback. The bill, if included in the final spending package, would reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which expired in 2020. The bill passed the House 378 to 26 in April and has now been tucked into the omnibus continuing resolution. 

Representative Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and chair of the House education and workforce committee, and Representative Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat and the committee’s ranking member, cosponsored the legislation.

In a news release, Foxx ​​described the decision as one that secures “transformative change” and “will leave an indelible impact upon generations of Americans to come.”

Scott echoed in the same release, “Americans need a workforce development system that works for them and their families … [and] this critical bill strengthens our workforce system and benefits job seekers and employers.”

The legislation dedicates funding toward upskilling workers, streamlines a list of training providers eligible to receive said funding and establishes a greater emphasis on apprenticeship programs.

Passing the WIOA reauthorization is a priority for workforce development advocates, as President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly emphasized plans to streamline federal regulations once he takes office in January. Programs like WIOA that are not authorized by then are suspected to be likely targets.